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Inverted ballpoint pen drawing!! The first picture is what I drew and the second picture is the inverted final piece

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just told my family that i was probably not coming back to the US after getting my masters because i don’t think there will be that many jobs opening up in conservation research in the next four years and my grandpa said “well you have a math background! just get a job in ai!”

crazy how people who’ve known you for your whole life just don’t know you at all

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started re-reading htn

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"No one can love you until you love yourself" is like the worst possible way of articulating "if you don't respect and value yourself, it's very easy to become attracted to people who don't treat you right and then justify their mistreatment, so be careful."

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Hi! I know this is a funny and cute post but I’ve worked in cheetah conservation (with both wild and captive cheetahs) and saying that cheetahs are bad at being wild animals and we should just domesticate them is a viewpoint that could be harmful to conservation efforts so I wanted to say some things:

Companion dogs: Using companion dogs as evidence that cheetahs do best in captivity is incorrect. Cheetahs often use companion dogs because their lives in captivity makes them stressed. Do you ever see wild cheetahs with companion animals? No, because they are less stressed in the wild and therefore don’t need one. Most adult cheetahs are also solitary animals (with some exceptions in the form of small male bachelor groups) so to say they get too stressed when alone is also incorrect.

Cheetah brith rates: Yes, they’re low in the wild. That’s a concern for conservation for sure. But do you know where cheetah birth rates are even lower? In captivity! Cheetahs are notoriously difficult to breed and even when breeding is successful they have high infant mortality, presumably in part due to the stress of being captive.

Cheetah cub raising: Mom not protecting her cubs makes perfect sense if you think about it. In the face of a predator you can choose fight or flight. Cheetahs are pretty bad at fighting and are famously able to run fast, so fleeing is the best option for mom’s survival. Why is mom’s survival important? Because she’s at breeding age and can make more cubs, while there’s no guarantee her cubs will make it to breeding age and breed successfully. I know it sounds harsh and it’s not how humans do it but that doesn’t mean it’s not a valid survival strategy.

Low survival in the wild: So this is mostly on us, unfortunately. As we start developing more land we cut off their territories which means less resources for them and less mating choices. This leads to genetic bottleneck (beyond the scope of this post but if you’re interested I’ll certainly explain it) which leads to higher rates of mutations. Also, many cheetahs are getting killed by local farmers who are trying to protect their livestock from the local predators. These are complex issues that lots of experts have been working on for years, but the solution is NOT to take cheetahs out of the wild.

People used to keep them as pets: Why do you think they stopped? Despite looking lazy for 23 hours of the day, they use that last hour sprinting at speeds that we can’t really support in captivity. Even those dog hunting lures don’t go fast enough. If cheetahs can’t get their energy out running, they get stressed and stop reproducing and start dying.

Captive cheetahs don’t kill humans: This is a stats thing. There are about 89.7 million pet dogs in the US. It’s not unusual for the average American to come across a dog once a week, even if they don’t own one. Every encounter with a dog has the chance to break bad, which means there are billions of chances for an American to get killed by a domestic dog each day. Even if you factor in the fact that the probability of a dog attacking you is really really low, if you shuffle a deck of cards enough times eventually you’ll put them back in order. There are only a few hundred captive cheetahs in the world, and unless you’re a zookeeper at a zoo that houses one, your typical human isn’t coming in contact with them with any sort of frequency. Also, zookeepers are trained professionals who have protocols that keep them safe while the average dog owner doesn’t even bother to keep their dog leashed in public areas (again, another post). If cheetahs became a widespread pet we would probably see deaths from them increase because while they’re so “cute” they’re also capable of hunting and killing wild game.

Don’t believe me? At the institution I worked, they didn’t let any volunteers shorter than 5’2” near the cheetah cages. Why? Short humans look snack sized and our cheetahs would start stalking them. And these were adults who knew how to behave calmly around wild animals. Imagine how a kid who moves unpredictably could trigger a cheetahs prey drive.

Anyways, I know cheetah=friend shape is fun and it’s cool to imagine having a big cat as a pet, but the illegal pet trade is actively contributing to the wild cheetah population decline and I would hate for people to be unknowingly supporting that. No hate to the people above me or anyone reblogging this; the desire to domesticate things that are cute is very common and often stems from a lack of education.

(And if it’s any consolation, their fur isn’t actually that soft!)

Imagine hearing this behind the bush and you thought its a cat 💀💀

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I do think it’s unfortunate that people (europeans) automatically assume that “american” style versions of foods are immediately the most bastardized version done purposefully out of lack of culture, when the reality a lot of times it’s rooted in a response of millions of poor immigrants stepping foot in a foreign land attempting to recreate beloved recipes with what few ingredients were available and affordable

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A mighty and dangerous tiger oc!!!!

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first art of 2025 ✨ inspired by this post because it speaks directly to my soul

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have YOU 🫵 thought about gideon nav today?

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Also re: the fact it’s normal to have a period of time where you have no friends: sometimes this means no “real” friends aka still have people you know from work, school, family, neighbors, acquaintances, etc etc you interact with but are not close with and couldn’t go to for anything on any deeper level. But sometimes it actually does mean no friends. No social interaction, nobody to call, no other option, don’t talk to anyone for days, don’t know who would find out if you died. The thing is there really is coming back from both of those situations ofc it takes a good deal of work and can feel like pulling teeth to put yourself out there but god it pays off. You can always start over from scratch, and it’s true most people are just as lonely as you are

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hey honest question, did anybody have GOOD stuff happen to them in 2024? cause it was really bad for me and for most people i know, so it would be nice to hear about anything that's been going WELL for any of you. even if it's small stuff. just to know there's light out there.

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[flashing lights warning]

good news everybody! the entirety of Summer, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, on an analog synthesizer :-)

source

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Get jolly with it

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*seeing a 6 year old in the wild* and skibidi greetings to you my young mr beast